Treating Illegal Immigrants With Deference Defies Our Legal Logic

Re “Memo Curbs Arrests of Immigrants,” Aug. 13:

Since when does the Mexican government dictate U.S. law and how it is carried out? The government arrests illegal immigrants wherever and whenever they find them, yet this causes a backlash among illegals?

Being in this country illegally is a crime, thereby making those breaking the law criminals. They should be arrested wherever they are found.

The U.S. government should not be hamstrung by a foreign government intent on unleashing its poor and uneducated to pour into the U.S. for the taxpayer to take care of. The U.S. has fallen far short of enforcing its own laws and now is slowly turning into the world’s dumping grounds.

Skip Houston

Laguna Beach

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We are supposed to be a nation of laws. They are, however, randomly enforced, and now they are not to be enforced at all! Why don’t we just let bank robbers and house burglars get away if we don’t catch them in the act? After all, they are only seeking a better life, albeit at everyone’s expense, the same as illegal immigrants. The United States has become an enabler to Mexico and South American countries. Those countries will never improve because they don’t have to. They can always fall back on their neighbor.

We can be called racists, cheapskates, mean-spirited or whatever else they wish to call us. American citizens are fed up with our porous borders and now the absolute refusal of local law enforcement as well as federal enforcement authorities to take charge of a very sick situation. How many Americans have lost their jobs because of the reckless abandonment of responsibilities of our own government in an effort to gain votes? What a slap in the face to all of those who stood in line and obeyed the rules.

A backlash is coming to our politicians because of their refusal to obey and enforce the laws. That is not a threat, but an absolute fact of life. This is absurdity at its height.

R. A. Franks

Anaheim

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Is it any wonder that businesses and successful longtime residents have been fleeing California for over a decade? Do the Mexican consulates and a vocal minority run this state or do the duly elected local and state governments with the assistance of the federal government? Why waste money on the Department of Homeland Security if we cannot get the type of protection that we are asking for? No other developed country in the Western Hemisphere would put up with the kind of leaky borders that we have had to endure.

If Arnold Schwarzenegger does not back down from his previous support of Proposition 187, he will win the recall election with ease since the vast majority of likely voters in California still support the initiative.

Pat McGrath

Rancho Santa Margarita